Choosing WordPress as the Content Management System (CMS) to build your business website is a step in the right direction. It’s the same direction taken by big and successful companies such as Sony Music, Time Magazine, CNN News, Microsoft, and the Walt Disney Company that have entrusted their online presence with WordPress.
And you don’t have to be a giant, multi-billion dollar company to benefit from WordPress. Small businesses that have limited budgets will also greatly benefit from using WordPress to power their websites.
WordPress is used by 43.2% of websites operating on the Internet because it’s customizable, easy-to-use, and user-friendly, and its massive library of plugins that are updated regularly, allows the user to constantly improve its functionality.
However, as amazing as WordPress is, it isn’t a plug-in-and-leave-alone website. In order to keep your WordPress website performing at optimal levels, it must undergo regular maintenance procedures. Likewise, you must frequently keep its plugins, systems, and templates updated.
5 Reasons Why Your WordPress Website Needs Regular Maintenance And Updates
Despite these advantages, WordPress remains vulnerable to the same problems as other CMS platforms. It can be argued that the WordPress system might demand more attention to regular maintenance procedures and program updates.
1. Innovation Demands More Care and Maintenance
Innovations of technology from cars to mobile phones to computers – the more advanced they get, the more efficient the performance, but the more care and maintenance are required to keep them performing at high levels.
WordPress is the same. Programmers are constantly developing new software to help users improve the performance of their WordPress websites. The more improvements you introduce to your website, the more maintenance and upgrades it needs to keep it performing optimally.
A busy entrepreneur like yourself knows this but the problem is always the lack of time. And you’re right. Entrepreneurs should spend more time managing tasks that bring in the dollars.
In this time of outsourcing, a smart alternative is to outsource the task of maintaining and updating your website to a reputable web agency like Mountaintop Web Design.
Learn more about our website maintenance services and leave the care and maintenance of your WordPress website to our capable hands!
2. WordPress Is Also the Number One Target Of Cyber Criminals
When you’re number 1 in the industry, it’s not just your competitors who have you in their sights. It’s also the criminal elements or more specifically, the cyber criminals.
The bad guys on the Internet know that WordPress is the preferred choice of CMS by the majority of companies. That means more businesses to target for their criminal activities.
They’ve studied how WordPress works. They know its strengths and weaknesses. And they know that busy entrepreneurs won’t have time to regularly update and maintain their websites.
In fact, cybercriminals could be trying to hack your WordPress website at this very second.
Once a website is hacked, it will be hard for the business to recover. Not only will you lose opportunities to generate income, but your reputation will be tarnished – perhaps for good.
Customers won’t trust a business that lost their confidential information to hackers. Worse, your customers might file a case against you.
60 in 6 – a study showed that 60% of businesses that have been hacked shut down after 6 months.
Don’t be a statistic. Schedule your WordPress website for regular maintenance and repair services right now.
3. Unused And Outdated Plugins Are Potential Points Of Entry
Unused and outdated plugins leave your WordPress website vulnerable to cyber criminals. They can use these old plugins as entry points because they already know how to override their programs.
Thus, when updates to the plugins currently installed in your website are available, update them right away.
Likewise, you might have programs that you haven’t used in a while or used at all. These are also potential points of entry. But how will you know which programs are unused?
This is why frequently conducting website audits is essential.
A website audit will run a review of the plugins and programs that are installed and assess the frequency of their use. The audit report will include a recommendation of which plugins should be deleted or upgraded.
In addition to plugins, you must also update your website’s theme template and WordPress system whenever upgrades are available.
4. Maintain and Improve User Experience
A well-maintained and serviced website will also benefit your end-users. They’ll be assured of having a great User Experience (UX) every time they visit your website.
In contrast, if your website isn’t loading fast, some of its features aren’t functioning correctly, the links are taking them to non-existent pages, the content isn’t updated, or they can’t log in to their account, their overall UX will be forgettable.
If these issues aren’t addressed and resolved right away, you’ll be losing customers.
And the consequences of a poorly-maintained website won’t end there.
Google will know that users aren’t happy with your website. The biggest search engine on the Internet will punish you for not prioritizing UX by dropping you in the search rankings.
Remember, you built your website for your customers. You want them to have a great time on your website each time they click for a visit. WordPress will be working round-the-clock to provide you with plugins that can help create the best UX.
Scheduling your WordPress website with regular maintenance procedures goes hand-in-hand with updating plugins to ensure excellent UX for your site users.
5. Avoid Costly Repairs
What did they say about “an ounce of prevention”?
Having your WordPress website undergo regular maintenance and its plugins and programs updated will result in more than just a “pound of cure”.
Instead of thinking that “it will never happen to you”, accept the possibility that even a website that’s powered by WordPress isn’t 100% failsafe and immune from cyber-attacks.
Cybercriminals are also aware that there are businesses that don’t prioritize security because they don’t think they’ll ever be a victim.
If you don’t take the threat of hacking seriously, you might wake up one morning and find your website shut down. The cost of having a website hacked can be quite expensive.
Your options are – repair or replace. The answer would depend on whether you were able to run a backup before the website was hacked. If not, you’ve lost everything and will have to start the website from scratch.
The expenses won’t end there.
The money you spent on SEO, content writing, and digital marketing – all gone. And if your site gets hacked, Google will attach a notice that reads “This site may be hacked” on its description on the search results page.
Having the notification removed might take 2 weeks. That’s 14 days of scaring away potential customers from using your website.
The cost of paying for website maintenance services is like paying for an insurance policy for your business. It’s not an expense, it’s an investment in securing your future.
Just by performing maintenance and updating services on your WordPress website, you can protect your business from threats and technical issues that can potentially cost you millions of dollars in repairs, foregone opportunities, lost income, and penalties.
Conclusion
Like your brick-and-mortar retail store that undergoes regular maintenance services and upgrades in security systems and protocols, the e-commerce version will require the same level of diligence to keep business humming and your customers happy.
Maintenance and updates are part of the package – an ongoing and progressive process – if you want technology to function at optimum levels.
What’s 100% sure is that you have the best CMS in the market. And when you’re working with the best make sure you give it the best care so that it can function properly and deliver the desired results for your business.
Your best option is to sign up for one of our Extreme WordPress Care plans. We offer budget-friendly packages that cover all the bases required for proper WordPress website care and maintenance.
Spend more time growing your business. We’ll keep it running like a fine-tuned engine to assure your customers of excellent User Experience every time.
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